As the Hands Off Project reached the end of life, active partners were invited to participate in a Partners meeting meant to recognise, affirm and celebrate all of the work that has been done over the years since 2020. The meeting was attended by INERELA+, among over 6 other partners across the Southern Africa region. Key among the activities was Programme Outcome harvesting through interrogation of the Theory of Change against each outcome aligned to each partner in the project. This was achieved through several activities over three days of intense work led by Sian Morgan, an independent consultant working with Aidsfonds on the close-out of the programme. Besides numbers, outcome achievement levels, individual partners were expected to showcase the success of each outcome, practically developing and presenting the Most Significant Change as follows:
Identifying significant change stories at a personal and organisational level.
- Two significant change stories at a personal/individual level: what changed, what contributed to the change, why was it significant, and what is the evidence for this change?
- Threesignificant change stories at an organisational level for each outcome – what changed, what contributed to the change, why was it significant, and what is the evidence for this change? The presentations were supported by videos, pictures, newspaper clippings, umbrellas, costumes, banners – anything that helped to illustrate the story and why it is so significant. The last half day of the meeting on the 10th of April was spent with partners discussing and developing several sustainability strategies beyond project life. Part of the strategy included a live meeting with Soraya from Aids Fonds (new programme-HIV Instrument focal person), providing a heads-up on the current status of the programme and what could be expected from all the partners interested in applying for the grants.